The U.S. Navy has signed delivery order for Bell-Boeing team to upgrade an additional four MV-22 Osprey aircraft to the Block C configuration.
The modification to a previously awarded contract, announced Friday by the U.S. Department of Defense, is worth more than $85,7 million and provides for the upgrade of four MV-22 aircraft from the Block B to the Block C configuration in support of the Common Configuration Readiness and Modernization Program (CC-RAM).
In addition, this modification provides for the planned maintenance interval effort for one of the CC-RAM aircraft.
Work is expected to be completed in March 2021.
The Block C design upgrade includes a new weather radar system that improves navigation in poor weather conditions, and a redesigned Environmental Conditioning System to enhance aircrew and troop comfort.
The new electronic warfare system will enable MV-22 Osprey aircraft to defeat air-to-air and ground-to-air threats while providing greater situational awareness with enhanced cockpit and cabin displays.
The V-22 Osprey is a joint service, multirole combat aircraft that uses tiltrotor technology to combine the vertical performance of a helicopter with the speed and range of a fixed-wing aircraft. With its nacelles and rotors in vertical position, it can take off, land and hover like a helicopter. Once airborne, its nacelles can be rotated to transition the aircraft to a turboprop airplane capable of high-speed, high-altitude flight.
More than 160 Osprey tiltrotors are currently in operation and the worldwide fleet has amassed more than 130,000 flight hours, with nearly half of those hours logged in the past two years.